Soooo… I know I promised that I would try to space out the number of posts I wrote about any given subject during Pride month, but instead? Here I am, writing my third post in as many days about books. I’M NOT REALLY SORRY, THOUGH. I LOVE BOOKS SO VERY VERY MUCH AND GET REALLY EXCITED ABOUT THEM.

HERE ARE SOME UPCOMING LGBTQ+ BOOK RELEASES I AM MONUMENTALLY EXCITED FOR.

1. You Know Me Well by Nina LaCour & David Levithan

Who knows you well? Your best friend? Your boyfriend or girlfriend? A stranger you meet on a crazy night? No one, really?

Mark and Kate have sat next to each other for an entire year, but have never spoken. For whatever reason, their paths outside of class have never crossed.

That is, until Kate spots Mark miles away from home, out in the city for a wild, unexpected night. Kate is lost, having just run away from a chance to finally meet the girl she has been in love with from afar. Mark, meanwhile, is in love with his best friend Ryan, who may or may not feel the same way.

When Kate and Mark meet up, little do they know how important they will become to each other – and how, in a very short time, they will know each other better than any of the people who are supposed to know them more.

Expected date of publication: June 7, 2016

I was initially hesitant about expressing excitement for this book, because it sounds INCREDIBLY similar Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, a collaboration between Rachel Cohn & David Levithan… which sucked. IT SUCKED SO MUCH.

But… I’ve heard great things about Nina LaCour’s writing, and besides, this book has definite LGBTQ+ content. One of the things that frustrated me about Nick & Norah was that any and all mentions of queer stuff were thrown in there to titillate the audience – it was never serious, and none of the main characters were LGBTQ+

2. True Letters from a Fictional Life by Kenneth Logan

If you asked anyone in his small Vermont town, they’d tell you the facts: James Liddell, star athlete, decent student and sort-of boyfriend to cute, peppy Theresa, is a happy, funny, carefree guy.

But whenever James sits down at his desk to write, he tells a different story. As he fills his drawers with letters to the people in his world – letters he never intends to send – he spills the truth: He’s trying hard, but he just isn’t into Theresa. It’s a boy who lingers in his thoughts.

He feels trapped by his parents, his teammates, and the lies they’ve helped him tell, and he has no idea how to escape. Is he destined to live a life of fiction?

Expected date of publication: June 7, 2016

This book is just so… me? The Engie that existed prior to coming out in mid-2013 felt completely trapped by everything she’d built up around her to stay closeted. Also? The whole thing with the letters is super interesting to me. I LOVE WRITING LETTERS SO SO MUCH. I’ve come out to so many different people, from my parents to my friends, through handwritten letters, because I find writing so much easier than speaking – especially when it comes to things that terrify me, as coming out did (and still kind of does).

(Also, is that a Pez dispenser I see on the cover? I LOVE PEZ. Am I like the only person who actually enjoys those candies and doesn’t think they taste gross? Because everyone else I know just collected the dispensers and either threw away the candy or gave it to me. Which… I’m not complaining.)

3. Look Both Ways by Alison Cherry

A summer away from the city is the beginning of everything for Brooklyn Shepard. Her theater apprenticeship at Allerdale is a chance to prove that she can carve out a niche all her own, surrounded by people who don’t know anything about her or her family of superstar performers.

Brooklyn immediately hits it off with her roommate, Zoe, and soon their friendship turns into something more. Brooklyn wants to see herself as someone who’s open to everything and everyone, but as her feelings for Zoe intensify, so do her doubts. She’s happier than she’s ever been – but is it because of her new relationship? Or is it because she’s finally discovering who she wants to be?

Expected date of publication: June 14, 2016

THAT TITLE, THOUGH. I have a lot of bi friends here at school and we’re always having mini wars about who makes the best bisexual jokes and puns. (Usually, it’s me, and then I won’t stop teasing them about how they were out-punned by someone who isn’t even bi.)

Also, that cover looks super cute. ALSO, THAT PLOT LOOKS SUPER CUTE. I’m not normally a fan of YA contemporary romances because, well… they’re all so STRAIGHT. And then I’m like, “Where have I seen this plot before? Oh, that’s right… in literally every other novel.”

4. Our Own Private Universe by Robin Talley

Fifteen-year-old Aki Hunter knows she’s bisexual, but up until now she’s only dated guys – and her best friend, Lori, is the only person she’s out to. When she and Lori set off on a four-week youth-group mission trip in a small Mexican town, it never crosses Aki’s mind that there might be anyone in the group she’d be interested in dating. But that all goes out the window when Aki meets Christa.

Expected date of publication: January 31, 2017

SOMEONE PLEASE HOLD ME BECAUSE I AM NOT OK. THAT COVER IS JUST. WHAT EVEN. OH MY GOD IT’S SO CUTE PLEASE HELP.

…I am very, very intensely passionate about happy stories by and about and for LGBTQ+ girls. We don’t get much of it, and so it makes my tiny and often sad gay heart happy to see such gorgeous covers as this one. QUEER GIRLS DESERVE LIGHT, FLUFFY LIT AND HAPPY ENDINGS TOO.

5. A Line in the Dark by Malinda Lo

[This] YA novel is a murder mystery about the shifting boundary between young and adult and the half-seen spaces where friendship slides into love, where love twists into jealousy, and where life crosses over to death.

Expected date of publication: 2018

THAT BLURB IS SO VAGUE AND I DON’T EVEN CARE. Because I will read anything Malinda Lo writes. I think she’s one of the best writers of LGBTQ+ genre fiction that we have today, and 2018 cannot come fast enough. BUY ME THIS BOOK WHEN I GRADUATE PLEASE AND THANK.

(I’m sorry there’s no pretty picture here, but the cover hasn’t yet been made available!)

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Which recently published and/or upcoming LGBTQ+ YA (or just LGBTQ+ books in general) are you excited for?! I want to know all about everything you’re looking forward to… let’s just pretend that my TBR list isn’t ginormous, OK? OK. Will I ever read everything on it? Probably not. Will that stop me from adding yet more books? ABSOLUTELY. NOT. NEVER EVER EVER.

8 Responses to 5 Upcoming LGBTQ+ YA Releases I’m Wildly Excited For

I’m also super excited for You Know Me Well and my expectations are high because David Levithan is an amazing author. Look Both Ways also sounds very interesting, hope to pick that up as well. Great list! 😄

I AM SO EXCITED FOR OUR OWN PRIVATE UNIVERSE. Also for Robin Talley’s As I Descended which I’m pretty sure comes out later this year, because gothic modern F/F Macbeth. In a boarding school. Which sounds like all the things I’ve wanted.
Anyway! I’d seen a bit about You Know Me Well, but I shall now leave to add the others to Goodreads. *nods*

Malinda Lo’s book sounds AMAZING. Only two years to go! Have you ever seen a book called Teeth by Hannah Moskowitz (I think that’s how you spell it)? I loved it. Not only for the non-hetero main relationship but also because the relationship is never really defined as anything but “intense”. Argh, I don’t think I’m explaining myself very well, I blame my damned head cold, but you should definitely check that book out, if only because Moskowitz is a GENIUS

I like Pez. They used to be really cheap and now they cost a fortune though (stupid inflation), so I don’t think I’ve eaten one in years, even though I’ve probably still got a dispenser lying around somewhere.